Psalms 58

1For the music director: “Do Not Destroy,” a Michtam of David.

2Do you really speak of justice, O “gods”? Do you judge with fairness, sons of man?

3No, in heart you devise injustice. Your hands weigh out violence on earth.

4The wicked are strangers from the womb. Speaking lies, they go astray from birth.

5Their venom is like a serpent’s venom, like a deaf cobra shutting its ear—

6not hearing the voice of charmers, or a cunning spell binder.

7O God, break their teeth in their mouths. Tear out the fangs of young lions, Adonai.

8Let them flow away like water that runs off. When he bends his bow, let the arrows be cut off.

9Like a slug melting away as it slithers, like a woman’s miscarriage, may they never see the sun.

10Even before your pots can feel a thorn —whether alive or ablaze— He will sweep the wicked away.

11The righteous one will rejoice when he beholds vengeance, when he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked.

12Then men will say: “There really is a reward for the righteous. There really is a God who judges on earth!”